# **Replication Package**

## **The Two-Track Labor Market: Gender, Class, and Formal Employment in Bangladesh**

**Author:** Tanvir Thamid  
**Affiliation:** Bates College  
**Date:** January 2026

---

## **Overview**

This repository contains the data and code to replicate all analyses in "The Two-Track Labor Market: Gender, Class, and Formal Employment in Bangladesh."

## **Data**

**Source:** Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics Labor Force Survey 2024 (all four quarters)

**Files required:**

* `Q1_Employment_Education 24.dta`  
* `Q2_Employment_Education 24.dta`  
* `Q3_Employment_Education 24.dta`  
* `Q4_Employment _Education 24.dta`  
* `BBS_LFS_Q1_2024_Socio_Economic.dta`  
* `BBS_LFS_Q2_2024_Socio_Economic.dta`  
* `BBS_LFS_Q3_2024_Socio_Economic.dta`  
* `BBS_LFS_Q4_2024_Socio_Economic.dta`

**Note:** The raw LFS data files are included in this repository. If you wish to obtain the original data independently, contact the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics ([www.bbs.gov.bd](http://www.bbs.gov.bd)).

## **Code**

**Main analysis file:** `gender_formality_analysis_clean.do`

This single do-file performs all steps:

| Section | Description |
| ----- | ----- |
| 1 | Data preparation: appends quarterly files, merges employment and socio-economic modules |
| 2 | Variable construction: formality, education, occupation, industry, wealth index (PCA), earnings quintiles |
| 3 | Descriptive statistics |
| 4 | Two-track analysis (Table 1, Figure 1\) |
| 5 | Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition (Table 2, Figure 2\) |
| 6 | Wealth quintile analysis (Figure 3\) |
| 7 | Earnings quintile analysis (Figure 4\) |
| 8 | Education analysis (Figure 5\) |
| 9 | Regression models |
| 10 | Summary statistics |

## **Instructions**

1. Update the file paths at the top of `gender_formality_analysis_clean.do`:

```
global datapath_emp "[your path]/Employment Education"
global datapath_se  "[your path]/Socio Economic"
global output       "[your path]/Output"
```

2.   
   Ensure the `oaxaca` package is installed:

```
ssc install oaxaca
```

3.   
   Run the do-file:

```
do gender_formality_analysis_clean.do
```

4.   
   Output files will be saved to your specified output directory.

## **Output**

The code produces:

* `analysis_data.dta` — Final analysis dataset  
* `analysis_log.txt` — Log file with all results  
* `figure3_wealth.png` — Formality by wealth quintile  
* `figure4_earnings.png` — Formality by earnings quintile

## **Key Variables**

| Variable | Description |
| ----- | ----- |
| `formal` | 1 \= formal employment, 0 \= informal |
| `female` | 1 \= female, 0 \= male |
| `educ` | Education level (0-4) |
| `track_a` | 1 \= professional occupation in education/health/public admin |
| `wealth_quintile` | Household wealth quintile (1-5, from PCA) |
| `earn_quintile` | Within-gender earnings quintile (1-5) |

